MISSIONS 

AND  INTERNATIONAL 

PEACE 


CENTENNIAL  MEETING  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
BOARD  IN  TREMONT  TEMPLE,  BOSTON, 
WEDNESDAY  EVENING,  OCTOBER  12, 

1910 


Reverend  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.  D. 

Pastor  of  Broadway  Tabernacle ,  New  York 


The  New  York  Peace  Society 
507  Fifth  Avenue 
1911 


MISSIONS  AND  INTERNATIONAL  PEACE 


Christianity  is  a  world  religion.  It  carries  the 
weight  of  the  world  on  its  shoulders  and  the  horizon 
of  the  world  in  its  eyes.  It  is  a  Good  Shepherd  reli¬ 
gion,  and  its  heart  has  no  rest  so  long  as  a  solitary 
sheep  is  out  of  the  fold.  As  it  goes  on  its  way  it 
picks  up,  one  after  another,  the  continents,  the  big 
ones  and  the  little  ones,  and  seeks  diligently  for  all 
the  islands  of  the  sea.  It  wants  to  whisper  some¬ 
thing  to  them.  It  wants  to  tell  them  God  is  love. 

From  the  nature  of  Christianity  the  Christian 
Church  becomes  an  international  institution.  Her 
field  is  the  world.  You  never  see  the  Church  at  her 
best  unless  she  is  playing  a  part  on  a  stage  as  wide 
as  the  planet.  She  never  gives  indubitable  evidence 
of  her  Divine  origin  until  she  sets  to  work  at  an  im¬ 
measurable  and  impossible  task.  When  you  see  her 
working  in  a  limited  field,  petty  in  spirit  and  narrow 
in  aim,  pottering  about  things  which  are  paltry,  you 
wonder  if  this  is  the  institution  which  was  to  come,  or 
whether  the  world  had  better  look  for  another.  But 
when  you  see  her  laying  her  hands  on  the  brows  of 
nations,  pouring  fresh  vigor  into  the  veins  of  empires 
that  were  old  when  Jesus  died  on  the  cross,  laying 
hold  of  backward  and  friendless  races,  and  planting 
their  feet  on  the  steep  and  difficult  ascent  up  which 
the  leaders  of  humanity  are  making  their  way,  there 
is  borne  in  upon  you  the  conviction  that  this  is  none 


3 


other  than  the  servant  of  the  Most  High  God,  and 
that  her  commission  was  written  in  heaven. 

The  Christian  Church  is  irrevocably  committed 
to  the  cause  of  peace.  Her  commission  runs  after 
this  fashion:  “Go,  disciple  the  nations” — put  the 
nations  all  to  school,  “baptizing  them  into  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,”  into  the  character  of  the  God  of  love,  “teach¬ 
ing  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  command 
you”:  for  instance,  “Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them.”  “Love  one 
another  even  as  I  have  loved  you.”  “One  is  your 
Master,  and  all  ye  are  brethren.”  “Blessed  are  the 
peacemakers,  for  they  shall  be  called  the  sons  of 
God.”  “Love  your  enemies,  pray  for  them  that  per¬ 
secute  you.”  “Put  up  your  sword.”  “When  you 
pray,  say,  Our  Father.”  The  work  of  the  Church 
is  to  tie  up  the  continents  and  the  islands,  the  king¬ 
doms  and  empires  and  republics  in  these  two  heav¬ 
enly  teachings,  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  Wherever  she  goes  she  pro¬ 
claims  that  “God  has  made  of  one  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  to  dwell  together,”  and  that  “Christ  has 
broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition.” 

All  these  things  are  written  in  a  book.  A  Chris¬ 
tian  is  a  man  of  a  book.  He  never  goes  anywhere 
wbthout  his  book.  This  book  has  two  chapters:  the 
first  chapter  contains  a  picture  of  a  bonfire  in  which 
the  boots  of  war  and  the  garments  -rolled  in  blood 
are  being  consumed  to  ashes,  and  in  the  light  of  that 
fire  we  catch  glimpses  of  a  world  in  which  all  the 
instruments  of  slaughter  have  been  transformed 
into  implements  for  the  feeding  and  nourishing  of 


4 


mankind.  The  second  chapter  of  the  book  contains 
simply  the  portrait  of  a  man,  a  man  whom  all  the 
world  has  come  to  call  the  “Prince  of  Peace.” 
Under  the  portrait  an  old  tradition  is  written  to  the 
effect  that  on  the  night  on  which  this  man  was  born 
the  skies  became  musical  with  voices  of  good  will. 
The  story  of  the  book  is  a  loving  heaven,  and  the 
mission  of  the  book  is  to  make  a  loving  earth. 

Wherever  the  Church  goes  she  carries  in  her  hand 
a  sacrament,  the  sacrament  of  the  bread  and  the 
wine.  The  bread  and  the  wine  symbolize  the  broken 
body  and  the  poured-out  blood  of  the  “Prince  of 
Peace.”  And  wherever  the  sacrament  is  adminis¬ 
tered,  the  Church  keeps  repeating  the  words  of 
Jesus:  “Unless  you  eat  my  flesh  and  drink  my  blood, 
you  have  no  life  in  you.”  The  “Prince  of  Peace” 
lives  in  and  works  through  His  followers. 

The  Church  carries  but  one  banner,  and  upon 
that  banner  there  is  inscribed  but  one  figure — the 
figure  of  the  cross.  The  cross  is  the  symbol  of  ten¬ 
derness  and  compassion,  of  brotherliness  and  self- 
sacrificing  love.  If  a  Christian  at  home  or  abroad 
ever  loses  the  temper  of  conciliation,  or  ever  forgets 
the  vocabulary  of  good  will,  or  ever  comes  to  think 
that  force  is  mightier  after  all  in  the  solution  of 
world  problems  than  love,  he  forgets  what  spirit 
he  is  of. 

The  first  great  Christian  missionary  always  con¬ 
sidered  himself  a  peacemaker.  Paul  lived  in  a  world 
that  bowed  low  before  the  god  of  war.  In  whatever 
direction  he  cast  his  eyes  he  saw  moving  masses  of 
soldiers.  Wherever  he  went  he  saw  fortresses  and 
citadels,  forts  and  fortifications.  The  language  of 


5 


the  camp  and  the  barracks  was  always  in  his  ears. 
The  whole  world  seemed  to  have  been  made  for  the 
soldier.  Those  magnificent  Roman  roads  running 
out  from  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  had  all  been  thrown  up  by  Roman  genius  and 
paid  for  with  Roman  gold  for  the  use  of  the  Roman 
legionaries.  All  the  triumphal  arches  had  been 
built  for  conquering  generals,  and  the  long  lines 
of  marble  statues  imaged  the  faces  of  the  men  who 
had  soaked  the  earth  with  blood.  “Blessed  are  the 
war  makers,  for  they  are  the  sons  of  the  mighty,” 
was  written  across  the  sky  under  which  the  first 
missionary  did  his  work. 

But  out  of  this  world  filled  with  military  sights 
and  sounds  and  memories,  there  came  to  this  mis¬ 
sionary  a  beautiful  vision,  a  vision  of  a  new  army, 
and  a  new  commander,  and  a  new  cause,  and  a  new 
triumph.  Paul  saw  that  he  himself  was  a  soldier 
and  that  all  his  fellow  Christians  were  comrades  in 
a  great  campaign.  He  said  to  himself :  “These 
roads  have  been  created  for  the  use  of  us  Christian 
soldiers  and  we  will  march  along  them  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  not  in  the  boots  of  war  but  in  the  san¬ 
dals  of  peace.  We  will  pull  down  the  strongholds, 
but  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal.  We 
will  lead  nations  into  captivity,  but  they  shall  be 
captives  of  the  Lord  of  Love.”  And  as  the  great 
vision  of  a  mighty  army  loyal  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
breaks  upon  him  he  cries  out  to  men  everywhere : 
“Put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God,  fasten  your  belt, 
adjust  your  breastplate,  put  on  your  helmet,  take 
up  your  shield,  grasp  your  sword — let  us  endure 
hardness  as  good  soldiers  of  Christ.”  Often  wmuld 


6 


he  meditate  upon  a  beautiful  picture  preserved  in 
one  of  the  old  prophetic  writings :  “How  beautiful 
on  the  mountain  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth 
good  tidings,  that  publisheth  peace.”  The  picture 
was  painted  in  an  age  harassed  and  tortured  by  war. 
Carnage  followed  carnage.  Horror  trod  on  the 
heels  of  horror.  Men  lived  in  a  state  of  constant 
alarm.  Wistful  eyes  were  ever  turned  toward  the 
horizon,  fearful  of  seeing  the  glittering  points  of 
advancing  spears.  And  if,  perchance,  no  spears 
appeared,  and  a  messenger  came  running,  announc¬ 
ing  that  the  fires  of  enmity  were  extinguished  and 
that  the  day  of  peace  had  come,  the  human  heart 
knew  a  rapture  which  the  tongue  could  not  tell. 
Paul  gazing  on  that  painting  exclaims :  “That  is  a 
picture  of  the  Christian  missionary.  How  beautiful 
on  the  mountain  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth 
good  tidings,  that  publisheth  peace.  Look  at  him 
coming  down  over  the  ramparts  and  battlements  of 
Caesar,  through  the  long  lines  of  javelins  and  spears, 
into  the  midst  of  the  enginery  of  battle,  announcing 
to  the  nations  of  the  earth  that  the  heart  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  is  love  and  that  war  is  contrary  to  the  nature 
and  will  of  the  Eternal.”  Only  the  other  day  some¬ 
one  said  that  what  the  world  now  needs  is  a  moral 
equivalent  of  war.  Paul  found  the  equivalent  nine¬ 
teen  centuries  ago. 

The  picture  of  the  missionary  in  the  first  century 
is  a  good  picture  of  the  missionary  in  the  twentieth, 
for  the  world  still  lies  in  bondage  to  the  god  of  war. 
Christendom  bristles  with  guns.  Millions  of  men 
are  under  arms.  Nations  look  with  terror  out  on 
the  sea,  counting  anxiously  the  number  of  Dread- 


noughts  being  launched  by  their  enterprising  neigh¬ 
bors.  Every  breeze  wafted  landward  from  the  sea 
carries  the  reverberations  of  guns  engaged  in  target 
practice,  where  men  are  perfecting  themselves  in  the 
art  of  sinking  and  drowning  a  thousand  men  at 
once.  The  whole  world  is  deluged  with  a  flood  of 
war  talk.  The  first  man  you  meet  is  likely  to  tell 
you  of  the  coming  war  between  England  and  Ger¬ 
many.  It  may  be  postponed  for  a  season,  but  soon 
or  late  it  is  bound  to  come.  That  England  and  Ger¬ 
many  shall  fight  for  the  supremacy  of  the  world  is 
decreed  by  fate,  and  from  this  decree  there  is  no 
escape,  so  this  confident  prophet  declares.  The  next 
man  will  tell  you  about  the  coming  conflict  between 
the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Slav.  The  enmity  is  deep- 
seated  and  can  be  washed  out  only  in  blood.  The 
fire  is  smoldering  for  the  present,  but  by  and  by  it 
will  break  out  in  a  conflagration  which  will  light 
up  the  wrorld.  Still  another  man  is  eager  to  tell  you 
about  the  war  which  is  impending  between  the  Slav 
and  the  Japanese.  He  assures  you  that  the  present 
peace  is  only  a  hastily  patched-up  truce  and  that 
already  preparations  are  under  wTay  for  the  opening 
of  a  war  immeasurably  longer  and  bloodier  than  the 
war  which  only  recently  was  ended.  The  next  man 
is  full  of  the  idea  of  the  coming  war  between  Japan 
and  the  United  States.  This  war  is  also  inevitable. 
The  mastery  of  the  Pacific  has  not  yet  been  awarded, 
and  it  can  be  awarded  only  by  the  god  of  war.  It 
is  impossible — so  this  man  says — for  Japan  and  the 
United  States  to  live  at  peace,  with  the  Pacific  be¬ 
tween  them,  until  one  or  the  other  has  been  humil¬ 
iated  and  broken.  The  last  man  you  meet  has  still 


8 


farther-reaching  eyes.  He  sees  the  conflict  which  is 
coming  between  the  white  man  and  the  colored  man, 
the  man  of  the  West  and  the  man  of  the  East.  The 
Orient  and  the  Occident  will  some  day  come  together 
with  a  clash  which  will  cause  the  very  globe  to  quiver. 
This  talk  of  war  is  flowing  in  a  slimy,  defiling  stream 
around  the  world.  Two  thousand  years  after  the 
death  of  Jesus,  Christian  nations  are  thinking  of 
war,  talking  of  war,  writing  of  war,  planning  for 
war,  pouring  out  their  treasures  in  preparations  for 
war.  In  a  world  so  crowded  with  military  sights  and 
sounds,  how  beautiful  on  the  mountain  are  the  feet  of 
him  who  comes  to  say  to  us:  “Let  us  have  peace.” 
See  him  coming  down  over  the  ramparts  and  battle¬ 
ments,  through  the  long  lines  of  bayonets  and  guns, 
standing  in  the  very  midst  of  the  enginery  of  slaugh¬ 
ter,  saying  on  behalf  of  the  world’s  Redeemer  :  “Peace 
be  unto  you.  My  peace  give  I  unto  you.”  You  never 
appreciate  the  stature  of  the  Christian  missionary, 
nor  catch  his  international  significance  until  you  see 
him  projected  against  a  world  groaning  under  the 
intolerable  weight  of  the  paraphernalia  and  accoutre¬ 
ments  of  war. 

When  has  the  missionary  been  so  much  needed  as 
now?  The  points  of  contact  between  nations  have 
been  indefinitely  multipled  and  every  point  of  con¬ 
tact  is  a  possible  area  of  friction.  Science  and  in¬ 
vention  have  converted  the  world  into  a  neighbor¬ 
hood,  but  they  have  no  power  to  transform  it  into 
a  brotherhood.  A  neighborhood  which  is  not  domi¬ 
nated  by  the  spirit  of  brotherliness  is  likely  to  re¬ 
produce  certain  features  of  Gehenna.  The  ends  of 
the  earth  have  been  brought  together  and  there  is 


9 


danger  of  their  becoming  tangled.  The  oceans  have 
dwindled  into  brooks  and  the  barriers  have  been 
burned  away.  Isolation  is  no  longer  possible  for 
any  people.  We  are  bound  to  touch  one  another’s 
elbows  and  there  is  a  chance  of  our  stepping  on  one 
another’s  toes.  It  is  a  commercial  age,  and  the 
commercial  spirit  is  alert  and  aggressive.  The 
trader  is  abroad.  He  cannot  be  kept  at  home.  He 
is  seeking  new  markets  in  every  land.  He  is  inde¬ 
fatigable.  He  is  bold.  Commerce  means  competi¬ 
tion.  Competition  is  the  mother  of  envy,  jealousy, 
hatred,  strife.  The  trader  is  not  always  the  highest 
representative  of  his  nation.  He  represents  only  a 
part  of  the  national  character.  Certain  instincts 
and  impulses  work  mightily  in  him,  the  instinct  to 
get,  the  impulse  to  acquire.  We  need  to  place  by 
his  side  in  all  the  commercial  centers  of  the  world, 
the  Christian  missionary,  the  man  who  represents  his 
nation  on  another  side,  the  man  in  whom  the  instinct 
to  do  good  is  mighty,  and  who  is  dominated  by  the 
impulse  to  give.  These  altruistic  instincts  and  im¬ 
pulses  are  also  a  part  of  the  character  of  the  nations 
of  the  West,  and  the  Orient  will  never  know  the 
Occident  until  by  the  side  of  the  trader  there  stands 
the  messenger  of  the  Son  of  God. 

This  is  also  a  pleasure-loving  age.  One  of  the 
most  fascinating  forms  of  pleasure  is  travel.  Tens 
of  thousands  of  men  and  women  are  traveling  con¬ 
stantly  round  the  planet.  In  all  the  capitals  of  the 
world,  representatives  of  a  score  of  nations  meet 
and  mingle.  The  traveler  does  not  always  repre¬ 
sent  his  nation  at  its  best.  Some  men  are  not  so 
good  abroad  as  they  are  at  home.  Men  who  are 


10 


honorable  at  home  are  sometimes  not  even  respect¬ 
able  abroad.  Travelers  are  often  snobbish,  inso¬ 
lent,  exasperating  to  the  people  of  the  country 
through  which  they  journey.  We  never  like  people 
who  differ  widely  from  us.  They  are  thorns  in 
our  flesh  and  we  are  thorns  to  them.  The  pleasure 
seeker  can  by  his  conduct  plant  in  foreign  com¬ 
munities  seeds  which  will  later  on  bring  forth  harvests 
of  misunderstanding,  hate  and  death.  By  the  side 
of  the  traveler  we  must  place  the  Christian  mission¬ 
ary,  the  man  who  recognizes  the  supremacy  not  of 
pleasure  but  of  duty,  who  feels  the  force  of  moral 
obligations,  and  whose  whole  life  is  an  exhibition  of 
fine  fidelity  to  a  sacred  trust.  The  pleasure  seeker 
does  not  represent  that  wThich  is  deepest  and  finest 
in  the  people  of  the  West.  The  Orient  will  certainly 
misunderstand  us  unless  by  the  side  of  the  man  who 
goes  abroad  to  get,  there  stands  the  man  who  leaves 
his  home  in  order  that  he  may  give,  and  by  the  side 
of  the  men  intent  on  pleasure  there  stands  the  man 
who  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  love  is  ready  to  lay 
down  his  life  for  others.  The  man  who  represents 
what  is  truest  and  noblest  in  his  nation’s  heart  is  a 
peacemaker  wherever  he  goes,  and  is  extending  the 
boundaries  of  the  empire  of  fraternity  and  good  will. 

This  then  is  the  supreme  work  of  the  missionary. 
He  is  a  mediator  between  the  Occident  and  the 
Orient,  between  the  North  and  the  tropics.  He 
stands  between  the  two  worlds  and  mediates  between 
them.  When  one  part  of  the  world  threatens  with 
injustice  another  part,  the  missionary  intercedes. 
When  separated  sections  misunderstand  each  other 
and  prepare  to  strike  each  other,  the  missionary 


11 


interposes,  saying :  “Come  now,  let  us  reason  to¬ 
gether.”  He  is  an  international  interpreter.  He 
takes  the  best  tilings  of  one  nation  and  shows  them 
to  another  nation.  If  there  be  any  virtue  or  any 
praise  he  brings  them  to  the  attention  of  those  who 
are  ignorant  of  them  or  likely  to  ignore  them.  One 
might  define  a  Christian  missionary  as  an  inter¬ 
national  interpreter  of  the  heart  of  God  and  the 
heart  of  man.  He  is  a  destroyer  of  things  which 
ought  to  be  destroyed.  He  tears  down  the  middle  / 
wall  of  partition.  This  is  a  wall  that  dynamite 
cannot  blow  over.  Lyddite  shells  cannot  be  shot 
through  it.  The  sharpest  instruments  of  war  can 
make  no  impression  on  it.  It  can  be  torn  down  only 
by  the  disciples  of  Christ.  Merchants  cannot  buy 
their  way  through  it  with  gold,  science  has  no  alche¬ 
my  sufficiently  subtle  to  penetrate  it.  It  falls  before 
the  attack  of  the  disciples  of  the  “Prince  of  Peace.” 

The  missionary  is  building  a  temper.  Wars  come 
out  of  tempers,  not  out  of  circumstances.  Two  men 
in  a  good  humor  will  not  fight  about  anything,  two 
men  in  a  bad  humor  will  fight  about  everything.  As 
with  individuals,  so  with  nations.  The  Christian 
missionary  is  building  a  temper  out  of  which  the 
thunders  and  lightnings  of  war  do  not  come. 

He  is  the  world’s  peacemaker.  “Blessed  are  the 
peacemakers,  for  they  shall  be  called  the  sons  of 
God.”  He  is  preparing  the  way  for  a  world-wide 
Pentecost.  For  a  hundred  years  missionaries  have 
been  working  on  language.  They  have  caught 
vibrations  out  of  the  air  and  reduced  them  to  written 
speech.  They  have  laid  their  hands  on  the  wild 
dialects  of  semi-civilized  tribes  and  reduced  them  to 


12 


the  restraints  and  proprieties  of  grammar.  They 
have  collected  words  out  of  the  home  and  the  shop 
and  the  street,  out  of  the  pages  of  vast  literatures, 
and  massed  them  in  great  dictionaries,  exhibiting  a 
patience  in  the  presence  of  which  the  heart  is  awed, 
because  it  suggests  the  patience  that  is  infinite. 
The  story  of  love  is  being  translated  from  one  lan¬ 
guage  to  another,  from  one  dialect  to  another,  so 
preparing  the  world  for  the  glorious  day  when  every 
man  shall  hear  the  good  news  of  God  in  the  language 
in  which  he  was  born. 

It  is  when  we  look  at  the  missionary  from  this 
standpoint  that  we  come  to  realize  his  international 
importance.  We  see  that  he  is  a  national  protector, 
he  is  a  sort  of  fortification.  It  may  be  that  some 
day  we  shall  look  upon  missionaries  as  so  many 
battleships,  armored  cruisers,  torpedo  boats,  and 
torpedo  boat  destroyers.  The  nations  just  now  are 
in  a  fury  of  self-defense.  As  a  nation  we  are  follow¬ 
ing  the  fashion.  We  have  fortified  our  chief  cities 
on  the  Atlantic  and  on  the  Pacific.  We  have  forti¬ 
fied  Hawaii,  and  we  have  fortified  the  Philippines, 
and  now  word  has  gone  out  that  we  must  fortify  the 
Panama  Canal,  lest  some  sneak  thief  pick  it  up  and 
make  off  with  it.  The  leading  Christian  nations 
have  battleships  in  order  to  protect  themselves 
against  their  neighbors.  Every  now  and  then  we 
are  reminded  that  we  have  one  hundred  and  sixteen 
billions  of  national  wealth  and  that  we  need  a  co¬ 
lossal  navy  in  order  to  keep  it  safe.  Without  battle¬ 
ships  we  should  be  at  the  mercy  of  anybody  and 
everybody  who  might  lug  off  our  treasures.  A  navy 
therefore  is  national  insurance.  What  is  one  hun- 


13 


clred  and  forty  millions  dollars  every  year  for  the 
navy,  or  twice  that  sum,  if  only  by  that  outlay  we 
make  our  national  possessions  safe?  This  is  the 
argument,  and  to  many  it  seems  conclusive.  But 
surely  the  good  God  must  have  provided  some  sim¬ 
pler  and  easier  way.  Spending  tens  of  millions  of 
dollars  on  fortifications  and  hundreds  of  millions  on 
battleships  is  only  one  way  of  protecting  a  nation. 
Another  way  is  to  create  all  around  it  areas  of  good 
will.  One  way  is  to  multiply  guns,  and  another  way 
is  to  multiply  friends.  A  man  may  protect  himself 
against  his  neighbors  by  encasing  himself  in  armor 
so  thick  that  his  neighbor  cannot  shoot  through  it, 
but  he  can  also  protect  himself  by  converting  his 
neighbor  into  a  friend.  Friendship  is  not  so  expen¬ 
sive  as  steel  armor.  Missionaries  are  peacemakers 
who  go  abroad  to  scatter  and  sink  all  the  fleets  of 
misunderstanding,  suspicion  and  ill  will.  Money 
spent  on  missions  is  a  form  of  national  insurance. 

We  have  spent,  so  the  experts  say,  one  billion 
dollars  on  the  Philippines.  It  is  a  wise  expenditure 
of  money,  so  many  think,  because  in  those  islands 
wre  have  a  place  on  which  to  set  our  foot  when  it 
comes  time  to  speak  persuasively  in  the  great  crises 
which  are  certain  to  arise  in  the  development  of  the 
distant  East.  But  islands  made  of  rock  and  sand 
are  not  the  only  islands  on  wdiich  a  nation  can  plant 
its  feet.  I  can  conceive  of  other  islands,  living 
islands  scattered  over  the  vast  ocean  of  Eastern  life, 
islands  made  up  of  human  beings  on  whose  hearts 
we  might  rest  in  these  great  crises  of  the  coming 
years.  I  can  conceive  of  a  group  of  islands  made 
up  of  men  and  women  who  were  healed  in  our  hospi- 


14 


tals,  another  group  made  of  men  and  women  edu¬ 
cated  in  our  schools,  another  composed  of  men  and 
women  baptized  into  the  name  of  Jesus  in  our 
churches.  This  archipelago  of  living  islands  would 
be  a  more  solid  foundation  on  which  to  rest  our 
weight  than  the  islands  on  which  we  have  spent  our 
billion  dollars.  For  if  the  day  should  come  when 
international  relations  were  strained  to  the  breaking 
point,  and  when  all  the  heavens  were  full  of  thunder, 
the  fortifications  which  we  have  built  and  the  guns 
which  we  have  mounted  would  only  look  out  glum 
and  sullen  across  the  distressing  situation.  And  if 
the  guns  spoke  at  all  they  could  speak  only  in  syl¬ 
lables  of  destructive  fire,  whereas  the  living  islands 
would  all  break  into  voice,  and  plead  trumpet- 
tongued  against  the  threatened  baptism  of  blood 
and  death.  One  group  of  islands  would  say:  “O 
Government,  do  not  make  war  upon  America,  it  was 
Americans  who  taught  us  the  elements  of  Western 
learning.”  Another  group  would  cry :  “Do  not 
shoot  down  American  young  men !  They  healed  our 
sons  and  daughters,  they  brought  our  babies  back 
from  the  jaws  of  death.  Do  not  kill  them!”  Still 
another  group  would  shout :  “Do  not  burn  American 
cities,  for  it  was  Americans  who  showed  us  the  beauty 
of  forgiveness,  who  revealed  to  us  the  loveliness  of 
love.”  These  are  the  islands  on  which  this  Republic 
could  safely  stand  in  the  most  furious  tempest  which 
might  ever  sweep  across  the  world. 

It  was  a  keen-eyed  prophet  of  the  Lord  who  said 
long  ago  that  God  had  still  more  light  to  break 
forth  from  His  holy  Word.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  He  has  still  more  light  to  break  forth  from  this 


15 


missionary  enterprise.  Ever  since  we  began  to 
carry  the  gospel  to  non-Christian  lands,  fresh  light 
has  been  breaking  on  our  path,  and  in  the  light 
which  is  sure  to  stream  upon  us  in  the  coming  cen¬ 
tury,  we  are  certain  to  see  many  things  which  are 
now  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  millions.  We  are  going 
to  see  the  horrors  of  an  armed  peace.  All  Christen¬ 
dom  realizes  the  horrors  of  war.  She  does  not  know 
yet  the  horrors  of  a  peace  which  is  prepared  for  war. 
But  when  we  once  see  distinctly  the  magnitude  of 
the  work  which  Christ  has  given  us  to  do,  when  we 
take  in  the  fact  that  there  are  one  hundred  and  ten 
million  human  beings  who  two  thousand  years  after 
the  death  of  Jesus  have  never  yet  seen  a  Christian 
teacher  or  preacher  or  physician,  and  that  there  are 
other  hundreds  of  millions  who  have  been  only  im¬ 
perfectly  shepherded,  and  scarcely  instructed  even 
in  the  rudiments  of  the  Christian  faith,  when  it  once 
dawns  upon  us  that  this  work  is  going  to  demand 
not  a  few  thousands  of  workers  but  tens  and  hun¬ 
dreds  of  thousands  of  them,  we  are  going  to  ask, 
Where  are  the  men?  How  does  it  happen  that  we 
have  so  few  men  to  preach  the  gospel  of  love  to  the 
non-Christian  world?  And  when  we  make  diligent 
search  we  shall  find  that  four  hundred  thousand 
men  are  in  the  navies  of  the  so-called  Christian 
nations.  Christendom  can  afford  only  sixteen  thou¬ 
sand  men  and  women  to  proclaim  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ,  but  she  can  afford  to  put  four  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  men  on  her  fighting  ships,  and  keep 
them  waiting  for  a  war  which  may  never  come. 
Great  Britain  has  one  hundred  thousand  men  on  her 
ships  of  war.  She  can  spare  less  than  eight  thou- 


16 


sand  men  and  women  to  preach  the  gospel  in  non- 
Christian  lands.  The  United  States  has  already  over 
forty  thousand  men  in  her  navy,  and  she  cannot 
spare  even  six  thousand  men  and  women  to  publish 
abroad  the  good  news  of  God.  We  have  to-day 
twelve  thousand  five  hundred  soldiers  in  the  Philip¬ 
pines,  and  all  of  the  American  churches  put  together 
cannot  send  more  than  ninety-two  men  and  women 
to  represent  Christ  in  those  islands. 

When  we  once  fairly  face  the  task  which  Christ 
has  given  us  to  do,  we  are  going  to  see  that  it  will 
cost  us  not  a  few  million  dollars,  but  hundreds  of 
millions  and  billions  of  dollars.  We  are  going  to 
ask,  Where  is  our  money  going?  How  does  it  hap¬ 
pen  we  have  so  little  money?  On  investigation  we 
shall  find  that  nearly  $600,000,000  of  the  money 
of  Christendom  is  going  every  year  into  the  support 
of  the  navies,  while  only  $24,000,000  is  given  to 
missions.  It  will  flash  upon  us  some  day  like  a  gleam 
of  light  from  the  judgment  throne  that  we  are 
spending  twenty-five  times  as  much  every  year  for 
our  ships  of  war  as  we  are  for  the  extension  in  dis¬ 
tant  lands  of  that  Kingdom  which  is  an  eternal  King¬ 
dom,  and  for  whose  coming  we  daily  pray.  We  have 
spent  more  on  our  last  six  battleships  than  the 
twenty-five  leading  universities  and  colleges  of  New 
England  have  been  able  to  accumulate  in  their  en¬ 
dowments  by  the  industry  and  sacrifice  of  two  hundred 
and  seventy-five  years. 

The  light  which  will  break  forth  from  our  mission¬ 
ary  labors  is  going  to  light  up  the  hollowness  of  the 
mischief-making  adage,  “In  time  of  peace  prepare 
for  war.”  This  is  an  adage  of  a  pagan  age,  and 


17 


bears  in  its  body  the  marks  of  Caesar.  It  was  born 
in  a  world  in  which  every  foreigner  was  an  enemy 
and  every  stranger  a  foe,  when  throughout  the 
world  it  was  might  which  made  right  and  no  one  had 
ever  seen  the  Prince  of  Glory.  But  when  the  lead¬ 
ing  nations  of  the  Western  world  are  counted  Chris¬ 
tian  and  their  rulers  partake  of  the  Lord’s  Supper, 
and  the  majority  of  their  statesmen  have  been  bap¬ 
tized  into  the  blessed  Name,  and  the  majority  of 
influential  voters  have  sworn  allegiance  to  the  Prince 
of  Peace,  to  go  on  everlastingly  repeating  that  old 
pagan  adage  is  to  blaspheme  the  name  of  Jesus,  and 
to  block  the  progress  of  the  world. 

Our  missionary  work  is  also  going  to  throw  light 
upon  the  cardinal  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  world 
evangelization.  The  most  disheartening  obstacle 
that  blocks  the  cause  of  missions  is  the  conduct  of 
Christendom.  Christ  said,  “By  their  fruits  you 
shall  know  them,”  and  Japan  and  China  and  India 
are  all  ready  to  judge  us  by  that  standard.  The 
most  conspicuous  fruit  that  grows  on  the  Western 
tree  is  a  twelve-inch  gun.  That  can  be  seen  a  longer 
distance  than  a  New  Testament.  Delegations  of 
noblemen  and  princes  from  the  distant  East,  when 
they  come  to  visit  us,  do  not  investigate  our  churches 
to  find  out  our  methods  of  preaching  the  gospel  of 
love,  they  are  more  interested  in  the  manufacture  of 
guns,  and  order  some  just  like  our  own.  If  two 
deacons  representing  two  prominent  churches  in  any 
American  city  should  begin  some  day  to  weight 
themselves  down  with  bowie  knives  and  revolvers, 
each  man  adding  to  his  collection  every  year  a 
deadlier  weapon  of  the  latest  fashion,  and  if  each 


18 


succeeding  purchase  were  exploited  in  all  the  news¬ 
papers,  not  only  of  that  city  but  of  all  the  cities  in 
the  land,  the  conduct  of  those  two  deacons  would 
nullify  the  message  that  came  from  the  pulpits  of 
those  two  churches.  And  when  two  so-called  Christian 
nations  weight  themselves  down  with  armor,  and 
anxiously  number  their  battleships,  counting  up  the 
number  of  their  Lyddite  shells,  and  when  every  move¬ 
ment  of  each  nation  is  blazoned  in  all  the  papers  of 
the  world,  their  conduct  subtracts  from  the  penetrat¬ 
ing  power  of  the  message  which  is  being  proclaimed 
by  every  Christian  preacher  throughout  the  world. 

The  light  will  some  day  become  so  intense  that  the 
Christian  Church  will  be  able  to  see  what  is  her  duty. 
The  cardinal  question  of  the  twentieth  century  is 
the  question  of  an  armed  peace.  The  question  is 
before  us  and  the  Christian  Church  must  take  hold 
of  it.  She  may  shirk  it  for  a  season,  and  try  to  hide 
it  from  her  eyes,  but  she  can  no  more  escape  it  than 
she  could  escape  the  gladiatorial  contests  of  ancient 
Rome,  or  the  institution  of  human  slavery.  Who 
knows  but  that  some  day  a  National  Council  may 
find  its  tongue  and  dare  say  something  on  this  great 
question — the  very  greatest  question  in  all  the 
world!  It  may  be  that  if  it  is  not  a  National  Coun¬ 
cil,  it  will  be  a  General  Assembly,  or  a  General 
Synod,  or  a  General  Convention  which  will  rush  into 
the  arena  where  the  statesmen  are  formulating  their 
policies  of  international  procedure,  and  will  cry  out, 
“I  beg  you  go  no  further  in  this  business.”  If  the 
Christian  Church  does  not  speak  who  is  going  to 
speak?  How  can  you  expect  Washington  City  to 
lead  the  way  if  the  church  remains  dumb?  America 


19 


can  lead  as  no  other  nation  is  able  to  lead  because 
her  entanglements  are  fewer  and  her  unique  position 
enables  her  to  travel  the  high  and  unprecedented 
way.  You  can  no  more  send  tens  of  thousands  of 
men  out  upon  the  sea  to  spend  day  after  day  and 
week  after  week  shooting  costly  metal  into  the  water 
while  thousands  of  human  beings  are  starving  on 
the  land  and  escape  the  slow  traveling,  but  terrible 
retribution  of  a  God  who  is  just,  than  you  can  man¬ 
acle  the  limbs  of  the  black  man  without  washing 
out  your  sin  in  blood.  The  vision  of  the  missionary 
task  is  going  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  Church  to  the 
wickedness  of  this  everlasting  playing  with  the  idea 
of  war.  There  are  sins  of  such  fierce  malignity 
that  even  to  roll  them  in  the  mind  brings  the  soul 
under  the  dark  and  devastating  energy  of  their  in¬ 
fernal  power.  So  long  as  Christian  nations  think 
of  wrar,  prepare  for  war,  plan  for  war,  pour  out 
their  treasures  to  make  themselves  terrible  in  wrar, 
fill  their  papers  and  magazines  with  pictures  of  the 
deadliest  instruments  of  war,  spend  two  billion  five 
hundred  million  dollars  every  year  upon  their  armies 
and  their  navies,  so  long  will  the  heart  of  Christen¬ 
dom  be  cold  to  the  appeal  of  Jesus,  and  the  hand 
of  Christendom  be  paratyzed  in  its  effort  to  accom¬ 
plish  the  work  which  He  has  given  us  to  do. 

There  have  been  three  historic  scourges,  famine, 
pestilence  and  war.  Commerce  has  slain  the  first. 
With  her  ships  and  her  money  she  has  made  it  im¬ 
possible  for  vast  populations  to  starve  to  death. 
Pestilence  has  been  overcome  by  science.  With  her 
antitoxins  she  has  strangled  the  deadliest  of  the 
bacilli,  and  a  dozen  historic  pestilences  lie  dead  at 


20 


her  feet.  The  last  enemy  is  war.  Who  will  say  to 
war :  “Where  is  thy  sting,  O  war  ?  Where  is  thy 
victory?”  Commerce  cannot  kill  it.  As  Richard 
Cobden  used  to  say,  “Commerce  is  dangerous.” 
Science  cannot  kill  it.  The  war  bacillus  is  beyond 
the  reach  of  her  most  potent  antitoxin.  If  left  to 
herself,  science  only  whets  the  sword  to  a  sharper 
edge.  Who  then  is  going  to  kill  war?  Christianity 
can  kill  it.  Christianity  must  kill  it.  Christianity 
will  kill  it.  It  will  do  it  by  Christians  bearing  witness 
to  the  Prince  of  Peace  in  Jerusalem,  in  Judea,  in 
Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 


21 


OFFICERS 

For  the  Year  1910-11 
President 

ANDREW  CARNEGIE 

Secretary  Treasurer 

SAMUEL  T.  DUTTON  ASTOR  TRUST  COMPANY 

389  Fifth  Avenue 


Auditors 

FREDERICK  WM.  GREENFIELD 
CARL  LORENTZEN 


Vice-Presidents 


Lyman  Abbott 
William  S.  Bennet 
R.  Fulton  Cutting 
David  H.  Gref.r 
Charles  E.  Hughes 
Henry  M.  MacCracken 
George  B.  McClellan 
John  Bassett  Moore 
Robert  C.  Ogden 


Alton  B.  Parker 
George  Foster  Peabody 
Horace  Porter 
Elihu  Root 
Albert  Shaw 
James  Speyer 
Melville  E.  Stone 
Oscar  S.  Straus 


Board  of  Directors 


Andrew  Carnegie 
Alfred  J.  Boulton 
S.  Parkes  Cadman 
John  B.  Clark 
Robert  E.  Ely 
Charles  P.  Fagnani 
Mrs.  C.  H.  Farnsworth 
John  H.  Finley 
Algernon  S.  Frissell 
Hamilton  Holt 
Charles  E.  Jefferson 
George  W.  Kirchwey 
Henry  M.  Leipziger 
Frederick  Lynch 
William  A.  Marble 
Marcus  M.  Marks 


William  H.  Maxwell 
William  G.  McAdoo 
Samuel  S.  McClure 
John  E.  Milholland 
W m.  C.  Muschenheim 
George  A.  Plimpton 
Miss  Mary  J.  Pierson 
George  Haven  Putnam 
Ernst  Richard 
Lindsay  Russell 
Wm.  Jay  Schieffelin 
Mrs.  Anna  Garlin  Spencer 
John  A.  Stewart 
Charles  Bernstein  Stover 
Horace  White 


Executive  Secretary 

WILLIAM  H.  SHORT 


507  FIFTH  AVENUE 
NEW  YORK 


